all for Papers
The Researcher to Reader Conference takes place each February, and our Programme is developed between June and October the previous year, with a Call for Proposals normally open during July and August. The Programme comprises a combination of invited contributors and a selection from the proposals received. We also welcome informal suggestions for topics and speakers at any time.
The Advisory Board invites proposals for Keynotes, Presentations, Panels, Discussions, Interviews, Debates, Workshops and Lightning Talks on the subject of international scholarly communications.
We particularly encourage proposals from researchers, editors, funders and librarians, and from people based outside the UK. We are also strong supporters of diversity and inclusion, and actively welcome proposals from under-represented demographics.
We only accept proposals from people, and do not accept proposals from organisations (except for sponsored Lightning Talks). This means that the person making a proposal must be an individual who intends to be involved in the session, not a consultant or a marketing person who is making the proposal on behalf of someone else, or to promote a product or service.
Proposers must use our online proposal management system (powered by Ex Ordo). Click the button below to start or edit a proposal: 
For R2R 2025, we are offering a choice of TWO deadlines for the Call for Papers: 31 July and 31 August 2024. Getting the proposal to us by 31 July greatly increases your chance of being accepted, as we guarantee to review it and make suggestions for improvements, by 15 August. This will give you time to revise the proposal, which will greatly increase the chance that it will be understood and appreciated by the review committee. Or you can just send in a proposal close to the final deadline of 31 August, and during the first week in September it will either be sent directly to the review committee to take its chances as it stands, or rejected.
Key information
The key information for making proposals is set out below:
- The proposals that you make are a key contribution to our programme
- Complete a proposal by one of the two deadlines: 31 July (with review) or 31 August.
- Propose a topic likely to appeal to the majority of our participants
- Choose a session format (Panel, Workshop, etc) that is appropriate for your topic
- High quality, early and pre-reviewed proposals have a higher acceptance rate
- Make your own proposal; corporate proposals (except for Lightning Talks) will be rejected
- Sales messages are not permitted (however well-disguised), except in Lightning Talks
- Plan to join the whole Conference, not just briefly ‘fly in’ to address an audience
- Contributors (except for Lightning Talk speakers) are offered discounted registration
- Join us physically at the venue if possible, but you can be online if absolutely necessary
- Proposals are evaluated by the R2R Advisory Board, and their decision is final
- We are be using the Ex Ordo platform to support proposal management
To make a proposal for participation in the Conference, please first read the detailed guidance below and explore the R2R website for more information, then click the link above (when provided) to start your proposal.
Call For Proposals
Conference Background
The Researcher to Reader Conference is a key forum for discussion of international scholarly communications – exploring how academic knowledge is conveyed from the researcher to the reader. The Conference takes place annually each February and involves around 150-250 participants from all parts of the scholarly communications community, including funders, researchers, research managers, editors, publishers, distributors, technologists and librarians. Initially a physical meeting based in London, the Conference was online-only in 2021 and hybrid in 2022 and 2023. In 2024 we returned to being mainly a physical event, but we hope to have opportunities for both contributors and participants to join online. The Conference has always been designed as a collaborative meeting, and conversation, amongst all the participants (including speakers), and has been successful in maintaining this ethos throughout the online and hybrid experiments.
The R2R Conference has an outstanding reputation for a well-prepared and highly-engaging programme. This is achieved, in part, by having a very structured approach to the Call for Papers, encouraging people to make proposals which are well-suited to R2R, are well-developed, easy to evaluate, and stand a high chance of inclusion in the programme. This, we believe, is helpful to both those making proposals and those evaluating them.
Call for Papers Detailed Information
The information below provides additional guidance to help potential contributors to put forward a proposal that is likely to be accepted by the Advisory Board. We recommend that proposers study this guidance carefully, as it should be helpful in ensuring that a proposal is efficiently and effectively prepared, and has a high chance of inclusion.
The proposal process is carefully designed
The guidance and the proposal entry form is deliberately quite structured and comprehensive, as we believe that this structured approach is helpful to both those making proposals and those evaluating them, as it ensures that proposers have the best chance of making clear what they are proposing, which increases their chance of the proposers’ efforts being worthwhile and the proposal being accepted.
To make a proposal for participation, please first explore the Conference website, and review recordings of past sessions at our YouTube channel. Then the potential contributor should enter their proposal in the system (link at top of page) by the deadline. Early submission is encouraged, as it gives us time to contact you to discuss your proposal before it is formally evaluated, greatly increasing your chances of acceptance.
We are also happy, however, for proposers to get in touch with us to informally discuss preliminary ideas or outline proposals prior to final submission. Or to discuss topics and ideas in the R2R Community Forum.
